Collecting Love
by Fairy Lights TM
Summary: Ginny has an early christmas surprise for Harry, but it's not a secret. She's returning his boxers, after all the time she's had them! But why does she have so many of his things, even though he may not have any of her stuff at all? ONESHOT HG


"There you are, Harry." Ginny said happily, launching something at him from across the table.

Harry looked up from his book he was reading, _All About Quidditch._ "My… boxers?" He asked warily.

Ginny nodded. "I heard you asking Ronald about them, so I figured I'd give them back to you."

His eyebrows crinkled. "Why'd you have my boxers?"

Ginny giggled, "Silly boy." she said, and hopped back up the stairs, two at a time.

Harry closed his book and picked up the boxers lying on the table. Frowning, he started to fold them.

"HARRY!"

He looked up, startled. Grinning, he recognized the two figures sitting down at the table.

"Hullo Fred, George." He tried to stuff his boxers into his pocket.

"What'd you got there mate?"

"Fancy sharing?"

Harry shook his head, "Oh its…its nothing. Nothing at all, really just some-

"Boxers?"

Harry gaped. How to Fred grab them that fast?

"Really Harry, if you didn't want to be wearing any knickers, you really should have taken them off upstairs."

"Yes, yes you should have." George added. "That's my seat at the table when we eat! Now at every meal I'll be thinking 'This is the spot where Harry had a little fun taking off his boxers.' I wonder how that'll help Mum's mashed potatoes go down, hmm?"

"It won't help at all, George. Not at all."

"Maybe we should switch seats?"

"No!" Fred cried. "What an _awful_ idea George! 'Cos then, every time I say, "Pass the butter, dear Harry." it might come out as "Pass your boxers, Harry dear." and _then_ what would Mum think?"

"That you're queer."

"Exactly!"

Harry quickly decided against questioning how the topic of their conversation changed so fast. From boxers to being queer? _Where exactly_ was the connection?

"Yes well, if you'll hand me my boxers back, maybe I'll show you that they _weren't _the boxers that I was wearing. It was just that Ginny just popped in here and-

"You let our little sister see your boxers?"

"No! I mean yes! But it wasn't my fault; really, she's the one who brought them in here! Apparently she had them or something!"

"_You mean to say, that you left your boxers in our baby sister's room?"_

Harry stuttered. "NO! I just meant-

"Harry Potter, if we find out that you've been sneaking into our _baby sister's room_, I think we shall have to castrate you with a blunt butter knife, won't we George?"

"Yes, I do believe we will."

The twins looked at each other.

"Well, I do believe our business is done here, don't you think?"

George nodded at his brother. "Lets go see how dear Ronnie-kins is doing, shall we?"

"We shall."

Harry almost warned them not go upstairs. Hermione and Ron had been up there for _quite a long time now_, but he felt that if Ronnie-kins got caught doing something, it would take the spotlight off of himself. Really, did the twins think that he and Ginny were… together??

He then noticed Ginny getting a glass of milk.

"Ginny! Sit down, I'd like to have a word with you."

Ginny sat. "Yes Harry?"

"I was just wondering… why'd you have my boxers? Really?"

Ginny frowned. "I guess I took them. Oh yes! I took them because I was in Ronald's room one day and I thought that they were his, and well you see, boxers aren't anything different from shorts, so I just decided to wear them because I was going to go swim. And then I just… kept them, I suppose."

Harry stared. "So… you have my boxers because… because you went swimming?"

"Exactly. Now bye Harry!"

"Uh, bye Ginny." He said, even though she was out of hearing range.

"BLOODY HELL! RONNIEKINS IS GETTING LUCKY TONIGHT!"

Harry grinned. It seems Fred had found them. Or… George. Whichever it was, Ron was _never_ going to live this one up.

He trampled up the stairs to see what was happening. His jaw dropped when he got to their room. Hermione was holding a blanket up to her neck, and Ronald was lying against the headboard, in only his jeans.

"We weren't… we weren't… _doing_ anything!" Hermione sputtered. "I have a right to kiss my boyfriend!"

"Oh so I guess you just happened to fall onto each other while you were changing?" Fred smirked.

"E..Exactly." She answered. "Exactly…"

Ron's face was as red as his hair, but Harry could tell he was laughing. Ron was able to find any kind of situation funny.

Later that night, when Harry and Ron were in bed, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Ron called, opening his eyes.

Ginny had a hard time opening the door, but when she did, she fell in with a box full of things that were very familiar… to Harry.

"Yes, well, Harry, I figured you got so bent out of shape about the boxers thing, I decided I might as well give you back the rest of your stuff."

Harry sat up. "Really?" he asked, unsure as to whether this was a good thing or not. "What else have you got?"

"Oh you know," Ginny answered, setting the box down at his feet, "This and that. So, yeah. I guess I'll be going back to my room then. Goodnight."

When Ginny was gone, Harry looked to Ron, who was already settling back in.

"Ron? Don't you think it's a bit odd that she's got a box load of my stuff?"

Ron snored.

"Thanks mate." Harry said, putting the box back on the floor and turning out the light. "Thanks a million."

…

"Ah! Close but no Cigar!" Mr. Weasley called out. They were all de-gnomeing the garden. Fred was throwing one over the fence, and had almost hit the target, but the throw just wasn't powerful enough.

"Mum said that if we could hit the target twice in one day, that Dad'll give us each a galleon, right Dad?"

Mr. Weasley looked over at his youngest son. "Mum said that, did she?"

Ron nodded.

"Well, I guess if your Mum said…"

Ron grinned at Harry and the others. They all grinned back.

By four O'clock that afternoon, no one had hit the target, and Mr. Weasley looked very relieved to call everyone inside to supper.

"Is the garden all clear?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "No gnomes?"

Everyone nodded. "No gnomes."

Harry laughed as he heard Fred whisper to George, "Pass the boxers, please."

"Something wrong, Harry?" George asked, grinning.

He shook his head, "Absolutely nothings wrong, _dear George._"

Molly looked from her sons to Harry. Something was going on.

"You three aren't planning something, are you?"

"No Mum." The boys answered, even Harry.

Molly grinned, "Mum, Harry?"

He turned red as he looked up at Mrs. Weasley. "Oh, sorry, just a-

"No, no, dear. It's okay. Nothing to apologize about." she interrupted, looking touched.

Mr. Weasley cleared his throat, "So, everyone excited for Christmas tomorrow?"

Everyone murmured their yeses while swallowing their food, getting ready for a big conversation about what they were all expecting to get. But Mrs. Weasley's stares told them all not to start. She and Arthur had had to be sparse this Christmas.

They all went to sleep very late that night, each and every one of them excited about the morning to come.

…………

"MUM! DAD! WAKE UP!"

Molly and Arthur woke up early that Christmas morning to every single child who inhabited their house upon their bed. Except Harry and Hermione, however, who were standing at the end, grinning at the scene.

"Alright , Alright you lot, everyone downstairs." Arthur gave in, pulling his Molly out of bed, "I don't think they would have let us sleep, dear."

She smiled.

Downstairs, everyone was waiting patiently for their presents.

"Okay lovlies, go get your-" Molly was cut off by the rush towards the tree.

"Here George! This ones for you!" and "Wait! That one's mine!" and things of the like rang out, and just as soon as it had begun, everyone was sitting around the living room, waiting to see who Mrs. Weasley would choose to go first.

"Youngest to Oldest, dears."

Fred and George groaned as Ginny smiled.

Several seconds later Ginny had unwrapped her first present. "How Beautiful! Thanks Mum! Thanks Dad!" In her hand she held a diamond necklace. It was her turn this year to get the expensive presents. She then unwrapped a broom servicing kit from Harry, ten galleons from Ron, who commented that he'd been saving them for ages, a joke bundle from the twins, and a diary from Hermione. She was already wearing a green sweater with her initial sewn into the front.

Ron was next, smiling brilliantly at Harry when he opened a collection of Chudley Cannons MVP figures. They were all screaming and yelling at each other, ready to fly out of the box. Ron closed it quickly. "Thanks mate." He went on to open the rest of his presents, an inscribed ring to go around his racing broom from Ginny, an assorted box of "Jokes and Other Things." from Fred and George, a "Room in a box." from Hermione, and a sweater from his parents.

While it really was Harry's turn to go next, he and Ron insisted that Hermione go. Blushing, she quickly went through her boxes, opening a magical day planner, a dairy, a Patented Day Dream ( c ) collection, a sweater, and a book entitled _A Ministry of Magic Approved Guide to Taking and Passing Your NEWTs._

"Thanks Harry." She said, giving him a quick smile.

The rest of the morning flew by as everyone waited for their friends and the rest of the Weasley clan to show up for early dinner.

"Okay now, If we stick Ron and Harry in the twin's room, and then we can stick Tonks and Fleur in with Ginny and Hermione, and then Bill and Charlie and Remus can stay in the boy's room, because who _knows_ what the twin's room looks like. And then, We've got our room and… am I missing anyone? I've got all the children… yes? And the overnight guests?"

Arthur looked at his wife, vaguely remembering her ramble. "Yes dear." He said, hoping that a universal response would do.

Molly scrambled around the kitchen a bit more, then stopped to sit down. "Yes, well, I suppose that's everyone…"

Everyone was sitting back, patting their full stomachs as Molly passed around seconds. "More potatoes, Harry dear?" She was asking.

"No Mrs. Weasley, thanks."

Arthur was prodding his wife in the side. "D'you suppose we could give it to them now? While everyone's here?"

Molly beamed, "Yes, Alright!"

Scurrying to the living room, she brought back the only two packages left unwrapped from that morning. They were small rectangles, something that everyone had eyed as they gathered around the Christmas tree that morning.

"Harry, Hermione, you each have meant so much to us these past years. You've become part of our family, you have. I see you as my children, really. You just mean so much to Arthur and I, that we've decided to… well, I guess you'll just have to open them your selves!"

Harry and Hermione hastily opened their boxes, only to discover…

"A clock hand!" Hermione gasped. They were shaped just like the rest of the family's, and Harry and Hermione's names were engraved on each. Molly smiled.

"I figured it was just about time to add you to the clock, seeing as I worry about you anyways. Oh! And it's charmed so that even if your at your house, or here at the burrow, it will say 'home' for either one, so I won't have to worry about _that_ either." She said, sitting back in her seat. "Now Arthur, would you like to do the honors…

Arthur Weasley stood up a proud man. He had just added two new additions to his family, and it didn't cost him a thing! Brandishing his wand, he did a quick swish and flick and the hands now sat comfortably on the clock, resting at the 'home' space, just like everyone else's.

………………………

Harry laid in bed that night, watching the three Weasley brothers he was rooming with engage in a loud fight over who was better- Krum or Harry. It was strange, really, because Harry dully noted that at the beginning of the fight they all shook hands and stated that while they all thought that Harry was the better seeker, the fight was long coming. It was then that Harry thought that he would ask Ron a question that had been bugging him all day.

"Ron? Wait a second, would you?"

Ron turned around. "Yes?"

"Why'd you suppose Ginny had all of my stuff in a box like that?"

Ron furrowed his brow. "The same reason you've got a load of her stuff, I expect."

"But I don't!"

Ron sighed and turned to look in his mate's trunk. "Yes well, see, here we are…umm.. Harry? What have you done with all of Ginny's things?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I've told you mate! I don't _have_ any of her things! She's had _loads_ of mine though!"

Ron stood up, feeling strange. "I could have sworn that you had loads of her stuff too. Hmm. Well then, I guess you're just going to have to ask her."

Harry then registered that Fred and George were rolling on the floor, laughing.

"What's so funny?" Harry asked, agitated.

"It's just that.. You're so blind! You don't know why Ginny has had all of your things for _years!_"

"How is that funny? I'd just like to know why all of a sudden, I'm figuring out that my best mate's little sister has hoarded all my stuff for years!"

Fred seemed to calm down a bit. "You love each other, mate. That's how things work these days. You like someone, you take their stuff. Sometimes, you don't even notice it. Like I bet you don't know that you're sleeping on Ginny's pillow, but you are."

Harry looked down. So he was.

Laying back down, Harry realized that maybe Fred was right. Maybe he _did_ love Ginny after all. And tomorrow, whatever it may bring, he was going to do something about it.

**Well?**


End file.
